It was dinner break on Day 7 of the main event — and hoping to finalize our patch deal with the really big money (and camera time) getting nearer, I joined Tom Schneider, along with Julie and Robert Goldfarb, at a Vietnamese restaurant with less than 30 minutes before play resumed. But alas, so much for Team Pokerati cracking the top 50 … all they wanted to do was play Chinese for $10 a point.

Here’s his latest instructional vid, teaching Kristy Arnett how to play everybody’s favorite 13-card game:

From WSOP.com:

Down to his last 1.12 million, the 2007 World Series of Poker Player of the Year Tom Schneider pushed all in from middle position, and got a caller in Marc Etienne McLaughlin from the small blind.

McLaughlin turned over and Schneider tabled . The flop came and the turn the . Schneider was down to his last card, looking for another seven or an ace.

The river brought the , and Schneider is out in 52nd place. He gets $138,568, and a big hug from his supportive wife, Julie.

McLaughlin now has 3.6 million.

Nice run, Tommy-boy, and as testament to the significance of the main event, this score likely moves him from last to first in the unofficial Team Pokerati Net-Results Challenge.

From Tao:

3:15pm… B-52… DonkeyBomber Eliminated in 52nd Place

Chip Leaders: Billy Kopp, Darvin Moon. Phil Ivey, Ludovic Lacay
Recent Eliminations: DonkeyBomber
Players Remaining: 49

DonkeyBomber lost a couple of pots before the break. AngryJulie went to fetch him a pizza so he could snack on his break. The railbirds are an integral part of the team in some cases, like a Nascar pit crew.

Bomber was short and made a stand with A-7. A French-Canuck called with 9-9. AngryJulie stood on the rail with an obstructed view and could not see the hands. “Do you have the pair or A-7?” she shouted.

“I have the Ace,” mumbled DonkeyBomber.

“That’s OK. I like it.”

The flop missed DonkeyBomber but he turned a seven to pick up a few outs. His Main Event came to an official close when he whiffed on the river. The DonkeyBomber was nevermore. A dejected AngryJulie fought back cheers as she joined in with a shower of applause. DonkeyBomber somberly walked over to the payout desk as his named was announced over the PA system, “The 2007 Player of the Year Tom Schneider from Scottsdale, Arizona was eliminated in 52nd place.”

“I’m proud of you!” shouted AngryJulie.

The two were followed by a camera crew as they walked through the vast emptiness of the Amazon Ballroom. At one point, they stopped and embarced for several seconds amidst the dimly lit room as a delicate clattering of chips echoed in the background. He disappeared into the crowd $138,568 richer, but he’ll tell you that this is the worst day of his life.

Play ended in the Main Event earlier today after 5 full levels of play, the first time that’s happened since Friday, leaving just 64 players remaining when play resumes at noon today. Here’s how the field will look (first by chip count, then by table):

As a note, the average chip stack is now about 3,044,000 with the blinds starting at 25,000/50,000 with a 5,000 ante. Leo Margets will earn the last woman standing title as Nichoel Peppe finished in 75th place, good for $68,979. Other notables eliminated after the dinner break: Peter Eastgate (78th), Kenny Tran (86th), Noah Boeken (96th).

Follow the live updates over at wsop.com and check out Pauly for his own version of the action.

To wrap up the Dream Team Poker event, Kenna James did take down the individual title.

Page 2 contains excerpts from Nolan Dalla’s tournament report:

More…

101 players remain as the players return from their dinner break shortly. The current chip leader is Darvin Moon of Oakland, Maryland with 5,700,000 in chips. Some notables returning with chips: Eugene Katchalov (3,600,000), Fabrice Soulier (3,550,000), Jeff Shulman (3,200,000), Phil Ivey (2,680,000), James Akenhead (2,500,000), Antonio Esfandiari (2,300,000), Dennis Phillips (2,200,000), Tom Schneider (1,571,000), Prahlad Friedman (1,280,000), Peter Eastgate (940,000), Noah Boeken (481,000), Joe Sebok (300,000) and Kenny Tran (262,000). There are still two women left as well: Nichoel Peppe (1,300,000) and Leo Margets (1,195,000).

Notable eliminations: Joe Hachem, David Benyamine, J.C. Tran, Theo Tran, Bertrand Grospellier, Blair Hinkle and Joe Serock.

The Dream Team Poker event is down to Kenna James versus Judy Tejwani for the individual title. Congrats again goes to the Tao of Pokerati team for clinching the team title a few hours ago. Live updates now available for the Main Event at www.wsop.com and more stuff from the rest of the writing team during the evening.

Wow, so much big action going on today. I really can’t think of a comprehensive way to follow it without tuning in to a lively collection of poker-player twitter feeds.

Obviously it’s Day 6 of the WSOP main event … and we’re all starting to wonder just how deep @DonkeyBomber and several others (Peter Eastgate, Dennis Phillips, Joe Sebok, Phil Ivey, Elky, David Benyamine) can go. Click here to follow the live updates on WSOP.com.

NOTE: Tom is playing at the ESPN featured table with Prahlad Friedman. I told him he didn’t have to wear his patch until Day 7. Oops? What I didn’t take into account (via Pauly):

Another huge table? Jordan Morgan drew Phil Ivey and David Benyamine’s table. All are top pros but very quiet players who rarely speak at the tables. I guess that’s why they’re not on the featured TV table.

And then down the hall in the Brasilia room, @taopauly and I are looking to take down the WSOP Dream Team Poker team title and then some.

Today is also the start of the Venetian Deep Stacks main event — a $5k that looks to have lots of WSOP main event bustouts in the field. And Team Pokerati will have its representative in @Tbonezz111. It’s the biggest event Troy’s ever played in; he got in on a $130 satellite to a mega-satellite … so should be fun to see if he can make a run for the bubble and then some.

Lastly, the $15k Bellagio Cup V main event starts today. Should be interesting to see who plays (and who doesn’t, opting instead for the Venetian action). You can follow those updates at WorldPokerTour.com.

Wheee! Great way to start the week … and bring the big poker summer to a close.

Edit: Here’s the official chip counts:

Sunday brought another three-level day to the WSOP, with just 185 players remaining when play resumes Monday afternoon at 12pm. The current unofficial leader is Warren Zackey, who’s listed from Honeydew, South Africa with 4,977,000 in chips. The most notable name at the top of the leaderboard is 2007 WSOP POY and member of Team Pokerati Tom Schneider at 3,168,000, good for 4th place. More notables, with their unofficial chip counts: Noah Boeken (2,4000,000), Eugene Katchalov (2,1000,000), Ludovic Lacay (1,685,000), Fabrice Soulier (1,450,000), Bertrand Grospellier (1,400,000), Blair Hinkle (1,100,000), Joe Sebok (1,100,000), Joe Hachem (1,000,000), Peter Eastgate (927,000), Blair Rodman (890,000), Joe Serock and Prahlad Friedman (760,000) and Kenny Tran (700,000).

Notable eliminations: Kevin O’Donnell, Mickey Mills, Cornel Cimpan, Kara Scott, Dan Shak, Nick Binger, Bobby Baldwin, Kevin Saul, William Robertie and Can Kim Hua.

Hopefully the official chip counts will be coming shortly, and Pokerati will be the 5th place to find them. Follow Pokerati also for Dream Team Poker updates, when they return from dinner break.

We are sad for those who didn’t make it … but happy our lone remaining Team Pokerati-er, Tom Schneider did … and with many chips no less! 797k, 404 players left. Today was the fight for the money. Tomorrow is the fight for the real money,

The back “patio” area, at this point, has some two dozen people on it — and it seems like all of them are speaking foreign … and different foreign at that! As the field whittles down, everyone’s attaching themselves to their remaining representatives.

Semi-interesting … The handicammed foreign media in action:

Pat Poels went out yesterday. And TBR, relying on the scurrilous poker media’s “reporting” that I am a cooler and getting antsy about making the money today, requested, “Don’t come anywhere near my table today.”

So fine. I didn’t. And in returning the favor, The Big Randy gave me confirmation that people who are superstitious are measurably less likely to win the main event. He had one guy to be really careful of today, sitting to his left, and on the third hand he got it all-in on a race … and lost … QQ < AK.

OK, I swear I feel bad. But this really is what today's all about -- the crushing of hopes and dreams.

And unless Team Pokerati can sneak up on some remaining big stacks to slap a patch on them -- which I'm pretty sure is near impossible with all the Poker Royalty agents circling healthy-chipped unknowns -- that means it's up to Tom "1-for-20" Schneider to survive past the bubble, go really deep to re-save the family farm his 2009 WSOP, and hopefully make a final table for my personal branding benefit.

Go @DonkeyBomber!

UPDATE: What I meant to say was good game, Randy. You played very well and gave it a valiant effort. Sometimes you just get unlucky. Better luck next year. You always have our encouragement and support. lol.

Day 3 of the Main Event were able to play five full levels yesterday, with 789 players surviving to return at noon Saturday as they crawl their way to the money bubble at 648 players. The only player with a 7-figure chip stack is Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier with 1,380,500. Other notables who are still hanging around: Blair Hinkle (542,000), Dennis Phillips (510,000), Phil Hellmuth (485,000), Kara Scott (456,500), Mike Sexton (414,000), David Benyamine (381,500), Lou Diamond Phillips (359,500), Kelly Kim (346,000), Joe Sebok (297,500), Joe Hachem (239,500), Tom Schneider (231,000), Bobby Baldwin (193,500) and The Big Randy (190,500). The entire list of survivors is available below:

Five more levels of play are scheduled for today, but a prolonged period of bubble play can play havoc, depending on when they start hand for hand play and how much time is added back after the money is reached. In any case, it’ll be a joyous occasion for most who make the money, while the more established players will be looking to abuse the bubble, and take chips off players looking to get out of Vegas with their $21k+ payday.

Follow all the action over at www.wsop.com here and Pokerati for other stuff going on during Saturday.

The first three levels of the Main Event have seen over 900 players already hit the rail, leaving around 1,100 players returning from dinner break. The unofficial chip leaders are Brian Hanson and James Akenhead with 625,000 in chips. Other notables with an above average stack (currently around 170,000): Owen Crowe (555,000), Bertrand Grospellier (520,000), Sorel Mizzi (445,000), David Benyamine (402,000), Phil Hellmuth (390,000), Phil Ivey (360,000), Lou Diamond Phillips (345,000), Mike Sexton (297,000), Dennis Phillips (240,000), Tom Schneider (230,000), 2009 WSOP Player of the Year Jeff Lisandro (211,000) and Jason Alexander (190,000).

Notables who hit the rail:

Erik Seidel, Raymond Rahme, Jimmy Fricke, Jean-Robert Bellande, Bill Edler, Darus Suharto, Ville Wahlbeck, “Miami John” Cernuto, Bryan Micon, Roland de Wolfe and Sam Farha.

More stuff from Pokerati later this evening as the money bubble may be reached tonight, depending on how fast the eliminations go after dinner.

Traction the commenter wonders:

Isn’t pat poels part of team pokerati? Show the love and get a chipcount

Fcuk-yeah, he is. (Especially when he’s got chips!) Not only does PP represent us well, but also Poels has provided a good subplot to the 2009 (Tom) Schneider collapse (and possible main event redemption). He’s faced a similar struggle this year, though he didn’t sink quite as deep hole-wise and has booked a few small cashes to yield thusfar better results climbing out of it.

Though his starting chip stack wasn’t too much bigger than Tom or Randy’s, Poels — a Day 2b guy — began the day at a table quite different from @TBR’s and DonkeyBomber’s:

1. Sykes, Mark 43,800
2. Poels, Pat 139,400
3. Feduniak, Bob 72,700
4. Beddaoui, Younan 25,800
5. Sliwinski, Nicholas 68,400
6. Gurevich, Max 61,700
7. Zeitlin, David 53,400
8. Tomko, Derek 19,000
9. Wilton, Ben 51,300

Honestly, I don’t think he could ask for anything better than Amazon-O72. Phil Ivey’s actually in a similar situation, only slightly more dominatingly, next door at O73. We’ll try to find out what happened, and for more immediate updates (not yet, but later), check in with @pokerati.

UPDATE: Pat has been moved. For now we’ll just assume/hope he ran over it, and that’s why it broke. For rapid-fire updates from around the Rio, follow the official action here. And for the best semi-live sense of what’s really happening on the tables as a whole, here. And of course here.

Cards have gone in the air, and two of our fellas are threatening to go deep. Today is the big day where they’re both starting in comfortable position but still will have to play to determine if they’ll be hanging on for dear ITM life, or making the big push for real money with a few hundred others.

Two tables we’ll be watching a little closer than others, live, on Twitter, and at WSOP.com:

Brasillia 223 — obviously there’re a couple mistakes on this semi-official list, and we (or WSOP floor staff) will correct accordingly … assuming Tom doesn’t get it all-in with Dario Tosin right from the git-go and come up short:

1. Rose, John 33,800
2. @DonkeyBomber123,700
3. Tosin, Dario 129,000
4. Mannino, Giuseppe 65,800
5. Patrick, Julie 31,100
6. Seiter, John 35,400
7. Phan, Tim 82,400
7. Chaplin, Joseph DNR
8. Jacobsen, Allen 60,800
9. Boudreau, Kevin 72,200
9. Brown, Chad 27,800

And Brasillia 219 — FYI to floor: they’ve got a couple empty seats over here if you don’t want to play BR 223 11-handed:

1. McGowan, Joe 96,800
3. DeGreef, Jeremiah 88,900
4. Fletcher, Todd 116,100
5. O’Malley, Patrick 41,200
6. Mueller, Greg 287,300
8. Lucha, Sven 160,800
9. @TheBigRandy 117,800

TBR starts the day with an M=33, Tom with M=34. Tom’s one of two big stacks amidst a bunch of short-ish-but-not-yet-desperate little guys, while TBR’s table has less of a rich-poor gap in the middle — just one guy close to short, and a 2009 bracelet winner as the biggest threat.

Daniel Negreanu knows her as “whackjob surprise” … and though we have a feeling that might be what the Schneiders call Tom’s annual birthday present, well-informed, loyal Pokeratizens know her as “Angry Julie” (from back in the Beyond the Table days) … and as the main event nears the money bubble, she’s the frontrunner amongst the women for WSOP Player of the Year.

(Woot! Congrats, Julie!)

According to Julie, men don’t know what it’s like to have to dodge tilt at a final table on a heavy-flow day … but she didn’t let that get in the way of her finding success. With just the main event left to play — making it still anybody’s game, but statistically unlikely that anyone passes her — here’s the breakdown of the top women in the WSOP POY standings:

1. Julie Schneider – 65 pts
2. Vanessa Rousso – 60 pts
3. Millie Shiu – 60 pts
4. Annie Duke – 40 pts
5. Jennifer Harman – 37 pts

Team Pokerati-er @TheBigRandy is doing well in the main event … he started the day in the top 9 percent in chips, and has been tracking his M moreso than his chip count.

TBR started the day with an M=73, dropped to M=55 after the first two levels, then down to M=46 after dinner break … but has since bounced back. With an hour-and-a-half left to play and blinds at 500/1000 + 100, his M is now back up to 63.

The goal, of course, is to get his M=∞.

The remaining 1700 players are currently playing the fourth and final level of play today for day 2b, which will join the survivors from yesterday to return Friday at noon as the field will be together for the first time. Troy Weber remains the chip leader with 475,000 in chips. Other notables with chips: Brian Lemke (275,500), Phil Ivey (265,500), Kenny Tran (220,000), Hevad Khan (177,000), Antonio Esfandiari (173,000), Tony Hachem (155,000), Phil Hellmuth (139,000), Ville Wahlbeck (109,000), Kirill Gerasimov (105,000) and Tuan Le (102,000).

Notable eliminations: Bernard Lee, Robert Williamson III, Phil Tom, David Sklansky, Gavin Griffin, Howard Lederer, Scotty Nguyen, Todd “Dan Druff” Witteles (who was at the ESPN feature table with Hellmuth), Shannon Shorr and Erick Lindgren.

Check out the updates and chip counts at wsop.com here and more stuff from Pokerati during the late hours. WSOP Media tournament and media briefing tomorrow, I’ll be with Team Pokerati in spirit in the tournament. The Commish has quite a few announcements tomorrow, including the Poker Hall of Fame nominees so come back tomorrow.

The day 2a field has returned from dinner break with less than 900 players remaining from the starting field of 1,476. Notable eliminations include: Gus Hansen, Johnny Chan, Mike Caro, Tony G, Jennifer Tilly, Shaun Deeb, Todd Brunson, Barry Greenstein and Mel Judah.

The current chip leader is Samer Rahman with 325,000 in chips. Other notables: Greg Mueller (223,000), Andy Black (164,000), Tom Schneider (140,000), Vitaly Lunkin (120,500), Jimmy Fricke (105,000), Joe Sebok (94,000), Sam Farha (70,000) and Amarillo Slim (48,000). More chip counts and updates can be found at www.wsop.com here.

@TheBigRandy:

Baggin chips for the night. 86,625. Avg around 45 or so.

@RobertGoldfarb not so much.

Day 1a of the Main Event is in the books, with 821 players remaining from the 1,116 who started the day. The reported chip leader is Eric Cloutier at 150,750. Other notable names with chips include: Jason Alexander (89,575), Pokerati’s Tom Schneider (79,600), John Hennigan (76,250), Vitaly Lunkin (68,300), Someone who didn’t report (69,500), Jimmy Fricke (63,425), and Andy Black (56,475). To see the entire list of chip counts, check it out here.

Day 1b gets underway at noon today, and will surely be the smallest field of the four day 1’s, with a chance the field will be under 1,000 when the registrations are calculated sometime after the dinner break after level 2 this afternoon. To see if that happens, follow the live updates over at www.wsop.com and more stuff from Pokerati during the day.

One of the “Pokerati Hotties” in the media Dream Team event … and for a warm-up, @RobertGoldfarb bought himself a bargain entry about 3 hours ago:

(my backers) Spent about 3k, but I finally won my main event seat.

Today is the first day of the 2009 main event. I’m sticking to my guns and saying the field size will be anywhere from 3,000-12,000 and offering 10:1 odds on anything outside of that. Just made a wager on the over for 5,000 … easy. Anyone else wanna offer that line? Seriously, it’s such a wild guessing game, and yet in the end, why do I think it’s gonna be just a few hundred less or just a few hundred more than last year’s main event field of 6,844? People can get their money off of PokerStars, right?

Meanwhile, Team Pokerati final tableist Gregg Merkow won his main event seat last night … and now is trying to figure out the differences between Day 1A-1D:
via Facebook

Winner winner chicken dinner won my seat to the main event in mega sat. today but can’t decide what day to play fri,sat,sun or mon.

Good question. Though as Kevin points out the numbers will likely differ noticeably as the 96 hours that constitute Day 1 progress, is there really a difference in the types of fields you can expect on each day? One more donkey-filled than another, for example (and is that a good or bad thing, lol).

Choosing when to play, of course, is the first of many decisions that will be part of someone’s journey toward becoming the winner. But it may also be the least relevant and simply depend on the player and his or her life schedule.

Big congrats for the deepest run of any Team Pokerati player in 2009, who just finished 3rd in the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw. From WSOP.com:

Julie Schneider played a remarkably clean tournament right from the start of play on Day 1. She quickly proved to her male competitors that she was more than just a pretty face at the table, picking off one opponent after another with her well-timed bets (and a few favorable draws). Her deep run comes to an end in third place, good for $66,285 and a big hug from husband Tom

Though we still need to run the calculations and wait for the main event to finalize, as of now, it looks like Mrs. @DonkeyBomber will win the Team Pokerati Net Results Challenge — and though not quite enough for Tom to quit his job and become a stay-at-home dad, it should be enough to keep the Schneiders out of indentured servitude. (Phew!)

What? You didn’t know the Team Pokerati Net Results Challenge existed? Either did we, but hey we swear it might be disastrous cool … tallying up not just winnings, but winnings-minus-buy-ins to see who’s really tearing it up at the WSOP.

Unofficial standings in that department:

1. Julie Schneider
2. Pat Poels
3. Gregg Merkow
4. Cliff Fisher
5. John Harris
6. Robert Goldfarb
7. Shoegal
8. Karridy Askenasy
9. Whit Blanton
10. Tom Schneider

Karridy had to leave the Julie final table to go play in his own tourney … just getting underway at Caesar’s is the WSOP Academy’s Tournament of Champions, where K-man is competing for a main event seat.

Follow his self-twittering action here.

UPDATE: Never mind.

As you probably know by now, Team Pokerati-er “Angry Julie” Schneider is making a real stab at bringing home a bracelet in the $2,500 2-7 Triple-Draw.

A lot’s on the line with this, of course … not only is this the second-to-last non-main-event chance for a woman to win, but also it may make the difference on whether or not the Schneiders can save the family farm.

They’re on dinner break now … and she’s got some work to do.

Abe Mosseri – 1,012,000
Masayoshi Tanaka – 399,000
John Juanda – 366,000
Julie Schneider – 163,000

You can follow the event here, and Julie-centric coverage via @DonkeyBomber.

Tom Schneider (front) may have been the crowd favorite, but FBT (far table) is still having a better 2009 and shut down Schneider’s hopes for redemption as the DonkeyBomber fan base looks on.

So close … but in the end, Tom missed the final table in the $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout event — losing heads-up in a hard-fought battle to Greg FBT Mueller. So rough, too … he played so well, fought so hard … so much money not won.

(Swear it wasn’t my fault, despite what others are saying.)

NOTE: Tom says things turned on the first dealer error he’s encountered the whole Series (which sounds like a lot of clean cards for a long time, but not really when you go out around dinner break in most of your 19 events).

Tom got dealt 3-3 … Mueller had 7-7 … but one of the 7s got exposed, so his new card was 3s. They were at 8k/16k, and a 3 and two spades came on the flop, giving Tom a set, and FBT a pair with a flush draw. Tom bet, Mueller called. Blank on the turn; Tom bet, Mueller called. Spade on the river = flush for FBT, compliments of his burn-card 3.

Here’s what’s happened this afternoon at the WSOP:

Tenner Tenuously Leading Omaha 8

Mark Tenner remains the chip leader with 6 players left in the $2,500 Omaha 8 or Better event. Josh Schlein, Fabio Coppola, Derek Raymond, Scott Bohlman, and Sirous Jamshidi round out the remaining field. Mark Gregorich finished in 8th, while Team Pokerati’s own Pat Poels finished in 9th.

Baldwin Looking to Hit a Double

Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin is the current chip leader with 7 players remaining in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Holdem World Championship, returning shortly after 8:30pm PT and streaming at www.bluffmagazine.com/live and wsop.pkr.com. Davidi Kitai, John Kabbaj, J.C. Alvarado, Kirill Gerasimov, Eugene Todd and Jason Lester are the remaining players at that final table.

Kuether in the Mix

Joe Kuether is the current chip leader (296,000) with 28 players remaining in the $2,500 Mixed Holdem event as they will end with either a final table of nine or when the clock strikes 3am. Randy Haddox is in second place (290,000) with Ylon Schwartz (245,000), Matt Matros (240,000), Barry Greenstein (227,000), and Gavin Griffin (145,000) in the top 10.

PLO 8, Flopping the Nuts is Great!

A field of 762 entrants started the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better event Thursday afternoon. When the players return from their 90-minute dinner break, approximately 270 players remain. No chip leader has been announced, but before the break Brandon Cantu was around 35,000 with Phil Hellmuth at 27,400 followed by Noah Boeken at 25,500.

Check the live updates at www.wsop.com and Pokerati for other stuff during the night.

They’re back in action in 2.5 O8B (bear with me, still experimenting with new abbreviations) … Mike Matusow is out, but with 14 players left Team Pokerati-er Pat Poels is climbing back hanging on for dear life. Mark Tenner is the chip-leader, but imho the guy you really have to watch out for is Mark Gregorich. This game caters to his style, and with half-a-table of knockouts to go before the final, fifth chip position is arguably a stronger spot to be in than momentary #1.

Click here to follow.

UPDATE: 13 left now. Pat in 11th chip position. Needs a scoop something fierce …

UPDATE: 12 left … but Poels involved negatively in the three-way-action scooped pot that knocked out Patrice Boudet. OK, now 11 left … Pat still near the bottom, but with more relative chips. 8th overall — and that’s with having just lost a pot. At the same time, even a double-up right now would still leave him in 8th place.

Here’s what they’re playing for when they get down near the final table bubble in this sort lower-middle buy-in split-game event. Obviously the $229k for the bracelet is nice, but for the non-winners, where exactly they finish could make the difference on whether or not they have a wave a winning or losing World Series:

1 $ 229,192
2 $ 141,647
3 $ 93,199
4 $ 65,094
5 $ 48,028
6 $ 37,350
7 $ 30,562
8 $ 26,213
9 $ 23,541
10 $ 17,007
11 $ 17,007

UPDATE: Poels = 9th. Nice-ish.

Team Pokerati-er Pat Poels is going deep in the $2,500 Omaha Hi-Lo. With 28 players left (out of 424) he’s about 10th in chips. Should be interesting … though he’s cashed a few times this WSOP, his net isn’t too much better than Tom’s for 2009. He knows how to win it — Poels booked his first bracelet in the $1,500 version of this event in 2005, and fortunately it doesn’t look like big money payout differential decisions would come into play until the final 5ish.

CK Hua is the threatening name at near the top of the stack-count, Max Pescatori is hanging on in the relegation zone, and in the middle with Pat, @TheMouthMatusow is alive and growing stronger — and he’s twittering that he’s on a mission to win it … so that threat’s out there.

Click here to follow along.

One cool adjustment to this year’s WSOP is that the media tourney will be played Dream Team Poker-style. I think it was a pretty brilliant move. Because even though way back in the day playing in the media event — with Cousin Sal at my table and Jim McManus in the same tourney — was the highlight of my 2004 … over time it’s gotten a little less important to me to spend a WSOP off-day playing in a turbo live event with only a feel-good charity donation on the line. In fact, I’ve missed the last two, because you know, whatever …

But this year, I’ll definitely be back, captaining the Pokerati Hotties:

DanM
California Jen
Kevin Mathers

Mathers apparently won’t be able to make it, so playing in his stead will be alternate Robert Goldfarb.

As anyone who has participated in a team poker event has discovered, these things are extra fun. And, frankly, I’m looking forward to accumulating jerseys. You already know about Team Tao of Pokerati — Pauly, Shaniac, and myself … and indeed, we’ll be playing in the real-money event on July 12 (and hopefully July 13). Not only do we want to redeem ourselves, but we figured since DTP took the boldly progressive move of sponsoring our little podcast, the least we could do is buy into their big event.

If you want to play in this $500+60 x3, Team Wicked Chops is hosting an online freeroll (June 25) for a seat on their squad. Tao of Pokerati woulda offered something similar, of course … but we don’t know you, so we couldn’t really take that chance.

Well, either Tom is suddenly running good or he stopped playing like a dooshwad or he’s less worried about twitter or he’s simply playing with sheer determination for fear of losing his captain status on Team Pokerati … regardless, they’re down to 52 players in the $10k 7CS-HL, and he’s currently 5th in chips. 16 get paid.

Apparently @donkeybomber was down to fewer than 3k chips at one point (they started with 30k) but has since climbed out of the cellar.

Click here to follow along. Because I sure ain’t gonna go anywhere near him. Still a long way to go.

UPDATE: Tom Down (not to be confused with Tom Dwan) and out.

Recapping the conclusion of Thursday’s action at the WSOP…

Baldwin Hits a Grand Slam with Bracelet

Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin a member of the 2005 NCAA Division III University of Wisconsin-Whitewater baseball team, took down the $2,000 NL Holdem event early Friday morning, besting Dane Jonas Klausen in heads-up play to take home over $520,000 in winnings and his first career bracelet. Baldwin picks up his second major tournament victory of the year, he won the $2,500 NL Holdem main event at the Venetian Deep Stacks Extravaganza II in April.

Mizzi Mastering PLO

Sorel Mizzi leads the final 11 when day 3 of the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event when play resumes at 1pm today, with the hope of having a final table of nine ready for the 2pm internet broadcast on ESPN360 and wsop.pkr.com. Here’s how the remaining players are currently seated:

Seat 1: Rifat Palevic (949,000)
Seat 3: Samuel Ngai (207,000)
Seat 4: Dan Hindin (342,000)
Seat 5: Felipe Ramos (323,000)
Seat 7: Richard Austin (537,000)

Seat 1: Van Marcus (482,000)
Seat 2: Peter Jetten (370,000)
Seat 3: Jeppe Nielsen (242,000)
Seat 5: Sorel Mizzi (969,000)
Seat 7: Cliff Josephy (805,000)
Seat 8: Isaac Baron (170,000)

Corwin Cole Claims Cardinal Condition

Corwin Cole is the chip leader at 185,700 when day 2 of the $2,000 NL Holdem event resumes at 2pm today with 213 players remaining, 171 making the money. Other notables returning include: Dustin Dirksen (145,000), Shaun Deeb (88,500), Chino Rheem (74,600), Rob Hollink (53,500), and Eugene Todd (48,500).

Tuan Top Stud

Tuan Le is the reported chip leader of the $10,000 Stud 8 or Better World Championship when play resumes at 2pm today with 110 players remaining, 16 getting paid. Le has 234,000, with Los Angeles Lakers CEO Frank Mariani in second place with 111,300. Tom Schneider is among the returnees with 83,300, good for 8th place. Dario Minieri (81,500), Nick Schulman (73,000), Jerry Buss (67,800), David Benyamine (65,400), and Mike Sexton (53,400) are some of the other notables hoping to play on Saturday’s final table.

Friday’s Tournament

Only one tournament kicks off today, the $2,000 Limit Holdem event, which was won last year by Daniel Negreanu in a field of 479, good for just over $200,000. The WSOP Staff Guide projection for this event is 480, but don’t be surprised if just over 500 take to the felt today.

More stuff during the day at Pokerati, and catch the live updates over at www.wsop.com

Usually, at least among bracelet holders and Batfaces at the WSOP, Team Pokerati members are not required to wear their patchwork until after electronic devices have to come off the tables. This was a compromise reached with the TPPU (Team Pokerati Players Union) because we see lots of people we know and like throughout the early stages of tournaments, and unless they’re some sort of ridiculous super-monster chip leader, we usually say the same thing when they say hi: Whatever, talk to us on Day 2.

Well, for the first time this Series, our mascot pal Tom actually has something to say … because for the first time this WSOP, @DonkeyBomber has “bagged chips” — and sure enough, he credits his early donning of The Patch, if not our friendly encouragement and mixed games coaching, for this baby step toward success. Tom is playing in the $10k 7CS-HL, and with 110 of 164 players remaining, he’ll begin Day 2 near the top of the leaderboard, 8th in chips.

Follow his progress throughout the day here … and maybe here. (Though don’t count on it, as superstition seems to be part of his new plan.)

Congrats, Schneider. Hopefully yesterday will not be remembered as your best day of the 2009 WSOP!

I feel kinda bad (not really) for crushing Tom’s soul. But I was hearing the same story from him as I’ve heard from at least a half-a-dozen other pros finding similar results: “I’m playing great! I’m making sick laydowns! My mental state is good! Just running bad. Cold cold cold. It’s getting frustrating. But I’m playing some of the best poker of my life! Jesus, [everyone else] is just getting lucky!”

Yeah. Uh-huh. That’s gotta be what it is … it’s clearly not possible that the deadest money on the table is someone who thinks they’re playing their A-game but isn’t compared to everyone else. In an effort to get a semi-retired Pokerati blogger and my best pro pal to consider shifting gears, I sent him the net-results rankings for everyone who has played in the 2009 WSOP under the Team Pokerati banner:

1. Gregg Merkow
2. Cliff Fisher
3. Robert Goldfarb
4. John Harris
5. Julie Schneider
6. Pat Poels
7. Shoegal
8. Tom Schneider

I then reminded him that the guy who picked him to be on his ESPN Fantasy Team (Gary Wise) is in dead last place. (Ha ha.)

You get the gist. The numbers don’t lie repeatedly. So while “playing some of the best poker of my life!” … not only is the DonkeyBomber something like 0-for-13 in cashing in tournaments, but also he hasn’t even made a Day 2. So before he finds himself trying to trade jewelry with Eskimo Clark for a satellite buy-in, he has decided to change his game says he will no longer be twittering until he bags chips for the first time in the 2009 WSOP. Good gameplan.

Click here to see the beginnings of a first-half WSOP fail regaled in increments of 140 characters or less. We’ll see if Tom returns with a vengeance or if his twitter account, along with his poker career, fades into oblivion.

DealerZach, pitchin’ to the Ladies … $1k NLH:

Jeff Carris beat out Jason Somerville to win the $1,500 NLH-Shootout in a 20-minute heads-up duel. And our own Team Pokerati ITMer John Harris (@johnharristtu) had just stepped into the box to deal the final hand:

The face of a Team Pokerati player about to lose all his chips, just in time for the cameras.

So Pat Poels (aka “Patch” Poels) heads over to the press box — a long walk from the Brasilia Room — to let me know he’s in the money in $3,000 HORSE and to get a new patch for his presumed run to the final table …

A few minutes later, I walk over that way to buy Benjo a drink to grab a picture of our latest Team Pokerati money player, and I stumbled onto a hand that looks to be getting big. Sure enough, they’re playing 7cs-hi-lo, and Poels is about to be all-in with the nut-flush and nut-low draw, and two cards to come. His opponent has trips … Pat goes blank-blank … and just like that he’s out — in 47th place, for a $5,277 payday.

Just coincidence, for sure … but it did remind me of patching up Gregg Merkow the other day. Without a doubt, it was a thrill on my end to have a player representin’ at a final table. And by all means, with 9 left, and him in 4th or 5th chip position, I think we all were thinkin’ … yeah, bracelet. Actually, when I went to give him his patch, another player at the table asked for one, too. I denied him, saying we don’t work that way — being a Pokerati preferred player is too big an honor to just give away willy-nilly. In the $2,500 NLH, that player went on to take 3rd place. Merkow …

Gregg Merkow busted out in 9th place, fewer than five minutes after posing for a picture with his new Team Pokerati patch.

UPDATE: @donkeybomber just busted out of his second tournament of the day — $10k 2-7 NL-1D. He’s still 0-fer, and has yet to go deep enough to display his ‘ati affiliation.

The other two-bracelet holder on our squad, Pat Poels, made the money in $3,000 HORSE.

We’d say follow his progress here, but they’re not really covering him much — with 46 out of 452 players remaining, many of them plenty big names. (Which is kinda why he’s on Team Pokerati.) At the same time he’s not twittering nor Facebooking his play … so that may become an issue at contract renegotiation time.

As of the current break, he’s got a slightly below average stack.

Recapping the early portion at the start of week 3 of the WSOP:

Serock over Brock

The $1,500 NL Holdem 6-max event is down to its final five players as they return from dinner break shortly. Joseph Serock is the chip leader, with Brock Parker looking to extend to 10 the number of years with someone winning two bracelets at the WSOP in second place. Russell Crane, Alex Wilson and Jesse Rios rounding out the field.

HORSEs Dragging Along

Players in the $3,000 HORSE event returned from the dinner break with 80 players remaining, only 48 getting paid. Matt Hawrilenko is the leader with 160,000 in chips. Notables near the top include: Gavin Smith (100,000), David Singer (92,000), Ylon Schwartz (80,000), and Michael Watson (52,000).

Pot-Limit’s a Boiling

The $1,500 Pot-Limit Holdem event is down to 22 players, with Alexey Popov the chip leader (290,000) with Jason Dewitt (285,000), Blake Stepp (240,000), Erik Seidel (140,000) among the remaining players.

Shootout at the Rio Corral

The first day of the $1,500 NL Holdem Shootout event as the event has drawn to an early close as a sold out field of 1,000 players, 10 players seated at 100 tables with all tables completed. Among the players who move to Day 2 action: Luis Velador, Peter Jetten, Zelong Dong, Tony Cousineau, Joe Beevers, Theo Tran, Alex Bolotin, and Chris Klodnicki.

Drawing for a World Championship

Around 100 players registered for the $10,000 NL 2-7 Lowball Single Draw World Championship with Gus Hansen making his WSOP debut. It’s early in the proceedings but all the big names are in attendance including Team Pokerati’s Tom “DonkeyBomber” Schneider. Follow him on Twitter and maybe will provide an update during the evening on the site. Also, check out wsop.com for further updates during the evening.

Pokerati player Jerry Randack is making a run at the Venetian HORSE final table today.

First off, some props to some Pokerati peeps scoring in the Venetian Deeps Stacks. Today, Team Pokerati player Jerry Randack made it to Day 2 in the $500+50 HORSE. We’re trying to follow him on twitter today, but, you know … some people don’t quite get how that works yet.

Also, big kudos to La Sengphet and Chui Kim from Dallas. La took part in a three-way chop in a $300+30 last week that paid her $24k. Chui followed that up the next day with a 4th place finish for $17k.

The Venetian tournaments are setting record numbers — with field sizes ranging from 500+ players to more than 800 in both $300 and $500 NLHs. Not sure yet on the HORSE event …

Meanwhile, the competing smaller buy-in skill-based tourneys across Las Vegas Blvd. at Caesar’s — the MegaStacks — are seeing very different results. According to one of our spies on the ground, answering the question of how it’s going over there:

Horrible. They canceled their $1k on Sunday because of lack of entrants. A player at Venetian said he went over their first, and they had 9 entries as of 11:30, one of whom was Jerry Yang. I saw Yang sit down in the Venetian tourney as a late entry at about 1:15.

NOTE: Bellagio has also affected the non-WSOP summer tourney landscape, re-upping their nightly tourney buy-in to $1,000.

A recap of the events from earlier this morning, trying something new to avoid the wall of text my morning reports have become:

Harb-oring a bracelet

Congratulations go out to Anthony Harb who took down the $2,000 NL Holdem event for $569,254 earlier this morning, outlasting Peter Rho and Jim Geary. All three players had cashed in earlier events in the WSOP as Harb and Rho cashed in the $1k NL Stimulus Special), while Geary finished 7th in the $1,500 OHL event.

Off to a Flying Finn-ish start

Onnittelu to the first Finn to win a WSOP bracelet, as Ville Wahlbeck, who had an earlier 3rd place finish in the $10,000 7 Card Stud World Championship bested David Chiu in heads-up play to take home the bracelet that eluded him earlier in the week, collecting nearly $500,000. He also moves into the lead in the WSOP Player of the Year race with 160 points, ahead of Phil Ivey and Vitaly Lunkin’s 110 points.

Another Finn looking for some glory of his own will be Tommi Horkko, who is the chip leader (509,000) with 11 left when the $2,500 Limit Holdem 6-max event gets underway at 1pm today. Daniel Negreanu (470,000) is close behind in 2nd place. Barry Shulman, Brock Parker, Shawn Buchanan and Nikolay Losev are the more notable names remaining in the compact field.

NAFTA: $2,500 NL version

The $2,500 NL Holdem event will also return at 1pm today with 20 players returning to play down to a winner. It”ll be like the Ross Perot v Al Gore debate all over again as Texan Gregg Merkow starts play as the chip leader (932,000), with Mexico’s Angel Guillen (860,000) and Canada’s Bahador Ahmadi (800,000) are the top three stacks fighting it out in the name of free trade and poker supremacy. Other international invaders who’ll be trying to take the bracelet to their own trade zone includes the UK’s Roland de Wolfe (400,000) and Russia’s Kirill Gerasimov (390,000).

Brazilian waxing 5k NL holdem

Brazilian Clemencau Calixto, not to be confused with the New Mexico band Calexico, is the chip leader (186,300) at the end of day 1, as 164 players will return at 2pm. Frere Jacques Faraz Jaka is 3rd in chips at 172,200. Other notables who are in the top half of the field: defending champion Scott Seiver (118,600), Jimmy “Gobbo” Fricke (112,200), Isaac Baron (101,300), David Benefield (85,200), Gavin Griffin (69,100), Erik Seidel (65,900), and Dan Heimiller (56,200).

$1,500 7 Card Studs

From a field of 359, only 97 will make their way back into the Rio at 2pm to attempt to reach a final table. The day 1 chip leader is David Levi (49,600). Among those in the top 10: Dutch Boyd (47,700), Jeff Lisandro (40,700), Jason Mercier (35,000), and Eli Elezra (31,100). Other notables include: Sam Grizzle, Nick Frangos, Pokerati’s own Robert Goldfarb, and Barbara Enright.

Hey Ladies!

Today’s event at 12 noon is the $1,000 NL Holdem Ladies’ World Championship, which was won last year by professional Svetlana Gromenskova in a field of 1,190 to collect just over $220,000 in cash. It remains to be seen if any guys will attempt to enter the field like last year, but it’ll surely make a great photo op for someone bold enough to give it a try.

Omaha, 8? You better!

The 5pm event today will be the $10,000 Omaha 8 or Better World Championship which was won last year by David Benyamine in a field of 235 to add over $535,000 to his tournament stats.

Projections

$1,000 Ladies World Championship – 1,190 (take the over, saying 1,254)
$10,000 OHL World Championship – 247 (take the under, guessing 231)

Follow the updates at www.worldseriesofpoker.com and Pokerati for the other stuff.

A patch-wearing Team Pokerati player goes almost-deep in the $1k Stimulus Special, and Pauly seizes on his own feint connection to the player by becoming an dirty-rotten-scoundrel agent to potentially exploit his winnings. That’s my take on it … Pauly sees things a bit differently, however, and contends he’s the one looking out for players, because he’s the one sweating their action and making sure they get appropriately paid for their torso real estate. All I know is that Pauly claims to now be first-time WSOP casher Cliff Fisher’s representative, and Cliff busted out of the tourney shortly after Pauly started hounding him.

Tao of Pokerati at the 40th WSOP
Las Vegas, NV

Episode 11.11: Donkey Agents
5:05

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The $1,000 NL Holdem Stimulus Special is nearing its final table as they’re down to 13 players and may stop for the day when they reach their final table. Jeff Oakes is the current chip leader with 2,400,000. Danny Fuhs is currently 2nd. Dan Heimiller and Steve Sung are other notables who are looking to make the final table, which will either take place later tonight or Wednesday at 2pm, as the scheduled streaming of the final table has been postponed.

The $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event is working their way down to its final table tonight. They currently have 27 players remaining as they went on their dinner break. Jonathan Tare will have the chip lead when the players return, Greg Pappas is currently in 2nd, with day 1 chip leader Jason Mercier is 3rd in chips. Former bracelet winners Dario Alioto, Eric Froehlich and An Tran are some of the notables making up the final three tables.

The $10,000 7-Card Stud World Championship has 45 players remaining while they play down to their final table. The current leader is Fu Wong, followed by Greg “FBT” Mueller, Max Pescatori, Nick Frangos, Hoyt Corkins and Cory Zeidman. A recent elimination was Day 1 chip leader David Oppenheim, along with Phil Ivey, Joe Cassidy and Bruno Fitoussi being day 2 casualties, falling far short of the money that will be reached when 16 players remain.

The $1,500 NL Holdem event got underway today as a field of 2,791 entrants flooded the tournament area, causing delays in the starts of several other events. Returning on the dinner break will be 889 players, with the current chip leader is Jonathan Little, with “Minneapolis Jim” Meehan, Bertrand “Elky” Grospelier, Tiffany Michelle and Chau Giang among the notables off to a fast start. The money will be reached when 297 players remain, with the winner taking home $666,853.

The $2,500 NL 2-7 Lowball Single Draw event started as 148 players took their seats, as plenty of notables round out the field, including Greg Raymer, Erick Lindgren, John Juanda, Billy Baxter, Chino Rheem, Gavin Smith and Pokerati’s own Tom Schneider as they play eight one-hour levels tonight. Follow all the tournament’s progress at www.worldseriesofpoker.com and Pokerati for DonkeyBomber and other updates.

Cliff is out of the Stimulus Special. He finished in 285th place (out of 6,012) for a payout of $2,921.

His twitter here.

Nice job, Clifford, and well done representin’ in your debut WSOP performance. You should feel really really good about how you played and what you did … and then after that subsides we can talk about that very questionable move you made with A-6 on the button (and then re-shoving on the flop of Q-6-x).

And with that experience in mind, Cliff will be playing in his second WSOP non-circuit event tomorrow, in the $1,500 NLH.

We apparently badge ‘em up good … they’re playing hand-for-hand, just a few spots away from the money in the $1,000 Stimulus NLH, and yet another Pokerati preferred player is properly representin’. Cliff Fisher, aka @brdpoker, is an IT specialist from Dallas playing in his first ever WSOP bracelet event. He ended Day 1 last night by more than doubling up when he called a reasonable raise with pocket 2s, flopped a set, and got it all in to eliminate his opponent’s top-pair-top-kicker with AK.

That brought him to 39,300 chips (comfortably above average). Despite his personal efforts not to succumb to superstition, he credits his success to the Pokerati patch: “As soon as I put this thing on, I started running like ultimate Goodness,” Cliff said.

Though he did decide to change his shirt for Day 2, he did keep the patch on to start today, and sure enough, he’s up to 56,100 chips (avg. stack about 30,000) as they cross into the money.

Follow Cliff throughout the day on twitter.

CORRECTION: Cliff did not change his shirt.

Meanwhile, @shoegal5225 also began displaying her Pokerati patch in a way we’re plenty happy to see … and sure enough, upon doing so, she won her satellite:

Kevin naturally stays on top of the big names you care about — but I, for some reason, am partial to following those donning their Pokerati patches (or at least those whom conceivably could be persuaded to wear one).

photo: Benjo

Team Pokerati player Julie Schneider.

In the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo event, where they’re down to 60something players, Team Pokerati has represented well. While Tom Schneider busted out plenty short of the money, Julie Schneider, aka Mrs. @DonkeyBomber, is alive and relatively well — as far as we can tell — despite her husband’s displeasure with where she has chosen to attach her emblem of Pokerati loyalty (go left breast!) and his refusal to let me straighten it for her.

In addition to winning a $20 lasts-longest bet with the 2007 WSOP Player of the Year, this is Julie’s first WSOP cash.

Other money finishers from Pokerati’s posse of Arizona mixed-game players include Robert Goldfarb, who finished in 67th place for $3,797, and two-time bracelet winner Pat Poels just went out in 64th place for the same payout.

UPDATE: Julie is out in 58th place, for $4,361. Layne Flack got the last of her chips.

(aka Omaha 8/B to most … bear with me as I belligerently try to simplify the game labels. )

A record (for Omaha Hi-Lo) field of 918 players started today … they’re about halfway through it, and a few Team Pokerati players are still alive.

DonkeyBomber just barely … but according to @donkeybomber, Mrs. DonkeyBomber is quite comfortable.

Robert Goldfarb (@robertgoldfarb) is likewise even more comfortable.

Also, in addition to the usual pros who happen to still be alive — Negreanu, Elezra, Hellmuth, Duke, Lindgren, et al — I’m following Matt Savage, Kristy Gazes, and early blog-adopter Shirley Rosario (who recently won a $1,000 HORSE Tourney at the California State Championships, hosted by Matt Savage).

Don’t forget that the WSOP isn’t the only big poker action going on in town right now. The Venetian has its own not-so-mini series of poker four times a year, the third of which kicked off today.

Event #1 ($300+30 NLH) of the 2009 Deep Stack Extravaganza III had a record 700 entrants — compared to 337 for the same event last year.

Total prize pool: $202,650. 1st Place: $56,743. Paying 63 spots.

(Not sure where the $1,650 overlay comes from.)

We actually had a Team Pokerati player in the field — Cliff Fisher, aka @brdpoker — but he made it only halfway through the field (and halfway through the first level in the second-chance tourney). Cliff plays in the WSOP $1,000 Stimulus tourney on Sunday, btw.

We’ll also see if we can’t find out how the other Little Big Tourneys are doing — specifically the Grand Series of Poker at the Golden Nugget, and the Caesar’s Megastacks.

It was a fun run following @johnharristtu in event #1, and things were looking good as they got deeper and deeper into the money. He maintained an above- to about-average stack throughout the day getting very few good cards — he saw Kings once and pocket 10s — and he was even willing to risk it against the chip leader (at the time), Cesar Chavez, sitting to his right, by three-betting him with a hand as small as Q-J to tell him to stop stealing his blinds and other hands he was raising with.

But in the end, John Harris lost three races in a row to finish in a Laodecian 25th place. OK, so maybe Laodecian isn’t the exact right word for expressing this WSOP dealer’s lukewarm feelings after cashing for $2,475, but hey, I’m just trying to use it in a (poker) sentence. Meanwhile, while Harris presumably replays all sorts of situations in his head trying to figure out where/how he coulda done better, we all know it was a great first WSOP go … and are pretty pleased to see the patch-wearing players we’re paying extra attention to start off in the black:

Buy-in: $500
Cash out: $2,475
Net: $1,975

His final hand: all-in with J-10 vs. 5-5; flop was A-10-5, K on the turn, 7 on the river.

In a case of subtraction by addition, the last two players to register for the 40th Annual $40k NL holdem event cost the eventual winner almost $135,000. Going by the WSOP’s payout structure, the winner would have taken 26.5% of the prize pool, or $2,025,000. However, the last two entrants pushed the payout into another bracket, as the winner takes down 24.5% of the prize pool–$1,891,000. The players are currently on their dinner break, to return at 8:30pm to play a few more levels tonight. 150 players remain when play resumes, some known names who don’t have to worry about returning: Daniel Negreanu, David Benyamine, Annie Duke, David Williams and John Juanda. The top three on the leaderboard: Antonio Esfandiari, Justin Bonomo and Chris Moneymaker, who have increased their 120,000 starting stack to over 400,000 so far.

The other tournament taking place, the $500 Casino Employees event, is also on a dinner break with 17 players remaining, with a winner to be crowned tonight. Andrew Cohen is the current chip leader with over 360,000 in chips. Team Pokerati member John Harris was knocked out in 26th place to take home $2,475.

Follow the players progress at www.worldseriesofpoker.com, and I’ll be back in the morning with more discussion on what day it really is at the WSOP. a recap of today’s events.

The $500 Casino Employee’s event is well underway — done with more than half the field — and our guy @johnharristtu is still alive and well:

@ second break, 380 left, my stack is about 6600. Avg is 6800

The event had 866 runners, down slightly from last year’s 930.

Top 81 will get paid this year ($974 minimum), with a guaranteed $7,782 for making the final table, and $83,778 to [John and his backer, woot!] the winner.

The advice I just texted him so I can theoretically stake a claim on any of his prize money to help get him there:

UPDATE from Harris:

Dinner break, @ 15400, Avg is 12990, 200 left

Lookin’ good, playin’ strong … now it’s time to get lucky — and by “lucky” I mean not get unlucky.

Additional WSOP-tagged tweetage here.

UPDATE from Harris:

4th break, 101 left, 25k, avg is 25700, blinds going to 500/1k with 100 ante

Anyone else get the sense that Harris is playing fundamentally sound textbook tournament poker?

Pokerati Preferred Player Cashes!
Friggin’ fantastic! This makes “our guys” 1-for-1 so far. (Maybe Harris’ first good decision was not beer-bowling with us last night.)

In the money! Stopping for the night @ 81 players, I have 54k avg is 35k

Tune in tomorrow to see just how deep dealer John Harris can go. I’m thinking like probably first.

As Kevin points out, today is the $500 casino employees event … and Pokerati’s got one of our guys in the seats: John Harris, whom will be making his debut as a poker twitterer here:

http://twitter.com/johnharristtu

Should be interesting. John’s a good player who has taken his game quite seriously over the past year+ … and he’s been playing on a backer’s money in his efforts to build a bankroll (while making a living as a WSOP Circuit dealer). There’ve been lots of ups and downs along the way, a few needle-moving tournament cashes, and overall he has grown his wad … but that process has been a slow grind to say the least. A big score here would go a long way toward helping him to step up to a level where he could do some real damage (or get his ass handed to him and get sent back down to the minors).

Here’s to hoping he can go deep — or at least last until after the UEFA Champions League final so we can patch him up appropriately and get a picture for the Team Pokerati photo album!

BTW: Though this will become more relevant as more events move forward, you can click here to follow all the twitterings of all Pokerati peeps together.